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A Complete Glossary of Home Selling Terms
What’s the CMA of your home and does the buyer have a plan for paying the closing costs? Does that sound like a lot of mumbo-jumbo? If it does, then it’s time that you get up to date on the latest real estate lingo.
When selling a home, it’s impossible to avoid real estate terminology. Everyone uses it from your real estate agent to your bank loan manager and the home seller. If you don’t know what they’re saying, you could put yourself at risk of a bad deal or an unfortunate misunderstanding that can cause endless trouble for closing the deal.
To help prepare you for the home selling process, I’ve created a complete glossary of real estate terms.
Appraisal — This is an estimate of the property’s worth/value. To determine the value of your home, you’ll need a real estate appraisal with expertise in your geographic area.
Appreciation — Over time, your house should gain in value due to increased marketing demand and inflation. The increased value of your home from when you purchased it is considered its appreciation in value. Depreciation refers to a decrease in value.
Assessed Value — This is the dollar value that a public tax assessor assigns to your home for the purpose of city/state taxes. This value is separate from a home appraisal value or market value.
Assumption of Mortgage — When the purchaser takes over your mortgage obligating, making them personally liable for payment of an existing mortgage.
Closing Costs — These refer to miscellaneous expenses (typically paid by the buyer) to close the deal. Expenses can include mortgage fees, recording fees, title insurance, transfer taxes, credit check fees, commissions, inspection fees, appraisal fees, and more.
CMA: CMA stands for Comparative Market Analysis, also referred to as “comps.” This report looks at similar homes in your area that were sold or are currently on the market and can help you determine an accurate value for your home.
Common Area — When selling a home, you should also mention facilities and space that are included perks. For a condominium, this real estate lingo can refer to a shared pool, parking, laundry, or courtyard. In a house, it can refer to managed homeowners areas.
Counteroffer — If you reject the initial home offer made by the buyer, you can make a revised offer that is more desirable.
Deed — The deed is a written document that transfers the title of your property from one owner to another.
Earnest Money Deposit — You’ll receive this payment from the buyer as an offer that indicates serious interest in your property. It is counted toward the down payment and is refundable.
Equity — This is the difference between your home’s fair market value and the value of your unpaid mortgage.
Escrow —Refers to an account set up by the lender, which holds funds from the buyer pending completion of sale.
Mortgage — A lien of claim against your property that the buyer gives to the lender as security for the money borrowed. When selling, you’ll need to ensure that you can make back your mortgage note.
Multiple Listing Service (MLS) — When selling your home, an MLS is an organization that collects and distributes home sale information to popular listing sites.
Principal — The amount of money you borrowed to buy your home that you must pay back with interest.
Real Estate Agent — A professional with a real estate license who has passed a test as required by the state.
Realtor — This is a real estate agent who is also a member of the National Association of Realtors, meaning they uphold certain standards and codes of ethics.
Real Estate Broker — A real estate agent that has additional education, has passed the state broker’s exam, and meets minimum transaction requirements.
Sales Agreement — Also referred to as an agreement of sale, contract of purchase, or purchase agreement. This is the contract in which the seller agrees to sell and the buyer agrees to buy under specific terms and conditions.
Title — The title is a document that refers to your right of ownership and thus your ability to sell.
Selling your home should never be confusing. Work with real estate professionals who can make the process as easy as possible and help you understand all the real estate terminology that you need to know. Contact me today to get the help you need and deserve.
Can Professional Photos Sell Your Home Faster?
A picture is worth a thousand words. We’ve all heard the saying before, and it’s definitely true when it comes to real estate. It would be almost impossible to fully describe a house without pictures. There’s just one problem; too often homeowners forget about picture quality.
Not all images are created equal. Blurry or poor-quality photos can be detrimental when selling your home. The question is, “Does professional photography help sell homes?” The simple answer is yes.
Professional photography can make all the difference when it comes to selling your home more quickly. It’s one reason why professional real estate photography exists.
Don’t just take our word for it. The facts speak for themselves.
Buyers Care About Photos Most
When looking at property, experts revealed that buyers are most interested in real estate photography. In fact, 95.1% of buyers first looked at pictures over everything else on a listing. Only after the pictures caught their attention did buyers move onto the property description section.
Real estate listing photos are particularly important when it comes to using the internet to home shop. According to the National Association of Realtors, 92% of buyers use the internet to shop for a home. Without photos, many homebuyers won’t even bother clicking on an online home listing.
Professional Photos Attract More Buyers
Professional real estate photography can earn you between $1,000 and $100,000 more on your final sales price according to a study. That’s serious cash.
In addition, better quality photos can also increase the number of people clicking on your listing. This means that simply updating your listing with professional photos can potentially double the attention your home gets from potential buyers.
Professional Photos Give You a Competitive Edge
It’s easy to tell the difference between amateur photography and high-quality professional real estate photography. There really is no comparison, and your buyers will immediately recognize the difference and be more attracted to beautiful photography.
What’s the difference?
Art Direction: Professional photographers understand the essential elements that make up quality home images. This means that your bathroom won’t just be a picture of the toilet, but a piece of art that makes your bathroom look the best it’s ever looked.
Staged Rooms: An empty home won’t get you anywhere. Furnished rooms and spectacularly staged photos attract homebuyers by helping them envision their new life in your home.
Perfect Composition: Great real estate photos need the right light, angles, and composition to capture emotion, structure, and beauty. A professional sees all of this and makes it happen.
Editing: Few pictures are automatically perfect. Instead, they require careful post-production editing to enhance the final product.
Better images provide an ideal showcase for the home you love. It’s all of these elements together that help professional photos stand out online and in every listing. So, if you want your home to have a competitive edge in your area, you need the right real estate photographer.
Professional Photos Sell Homes Faster
Studies reveal that professional real estate photos can help a listing sell faster than comparable homes without professional photography. This means that if you have limited time or want to get your home off of your hands quickly, you can’t just point and shoot with your own camera. You need images that are produced professionally in order to have a major impact on potential buyers.
In the end, there’s no doubt that professional home photography is a good idea if you want to sell your home faster and for more money.
5 Bathroom Renovations That Really Pay Off
On the journey to selling your home, it can be all too easy to focus solely on finding your new dream property and forget to ensure the home you leave behind is a dream property for its next inhabitants. Creating a beautiful living space that you’ll soon be leaving may seem counterproductive, but the good news is giving your home some targeted TLC before selling can increase its value at a time when that matters most.
To help you make your property that little bit more irresistible, our friends at Jaquar are honing in on the bathroom – a space full of renovation potential. From full-scale makeover ideas to the finer details, you’ll find ideas galore for redecorating your way to a hefty new home fund.
A blank canvas color palette
Pale, muted and earthy shades are widely acknowledged as appealing to potential buyers due to being stripped-back and, as a result, boundless in potential. Without a bold, imposing color scheme limiting their imagination, prospective buyers will be able to effortlessly picture themselves living in the space.
A neutral color palette is particularly at home in the bathroom, which should be designated as a space for peaceful, uninterrupted relaxation. Calming shades such as white, cream and beige are ideal for creating that all-important atmosphere of zen – and with any luck, potential buyers will feel their worries melt away the moment they first set foot in your blank canvas bathroom.
Vertical storage space maximized
In smaller homes, storage space is at a premium – and even if your property is a reasonable size, there’s no denying the appeal of extra storage options that don’t impose on the living space itself.
In the bathroom, your best bet is to unlock the potential of your available vertical space – introducing new hanging storage baskets, wall-mounted hooks and rails, and floating shelves, all of which are as affordable as they are effective. With these simple storage additions, you can create an utterly clutter-free space where everything has its right place – guaranteed to go down a storm with prospective buyers.
A striking statement bathtub
Introducing a distinctive statement feature to your home is interior design 101 – and the bathroom is a particularly effective space for putting this idea into action. To promptly dial up your bathroom’s aesthetic from perfectly adequate to unmistakably premium, invest in a sumptuous statement bath that immediately catches the eye.
Free-standing bathtubs in particular add instant opulence to any bathroom, conjuring images of tranquil living in the lap of luxury. If your property can make a promise as powerful as that, finding a buyer shouldn’t be a problem.
Radiant lighting fixtures
The right lighting is the key to the right ambience, and ambience isn’t something that can be neglected in a relaxation station like the bathroom. In keeping with your understated yet elegant aesthetic, you can increase your bathroom’s appeal further still by illuminating the space with gently glowing sconces, under-cabinet or over-shelf lighting, an industrial-look pendant lamp or a combination of the lot if you’re open to something a little more eclectic.
Of course, the ultimate bathroom lighting solution is to introduce a skylight, bathing the entire space in rejuvenating natural light. This will mean a far greater financial investment on your part, but is likely to pay dividends when the time comes to sell your home.
Premium extras aplenty
With your neutral color palette, vertical storage options, statement bathtub and luxurious light fixtures firmly in place, all that’s left is to ice the cake – by which we mean put the finishing touches on your irresistible bathroom.
From elegant wall mirrors and dainty cabinets to a fashionable and functional splash back behind the basin or in the shower, the options are practically endless when it comes to accessorizing your way to a bathroom any prospective buyer will be happy to pay more for the luxury of living in.
A Beginner’s Guide to Homeowners Insurance
A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Homeowners Insurance
Buying homeowners insurance for the first time can be intimidating. Gaining a better understanding of what it covers, what it doesn’t, and how much coverage you need can help calm your nerves and build your confidence.
While buying your first home is exciting, buying your first homeowners insurance policy isn’t nearly as much fun. New homeowners have all kinds of questions about what homeowners insurance covers and what it doesn’t, and understandably so. When shopping around for a policy to protect the biggest financial investment of your life, you want to feel confident that you’ll walk away with enough coverage.
Fortunately, with just a bit of a debriefing on homeowners insurance, those shopping for their first policy can feel empowered and knowledgeable even before meeting with an insurance agent. Here’s a quick breakdown of the finer nuances of homeowners insurance coverage, including how much you need to protect your home and belongings.
What Homeowners Insurance Covers
When buying an insurance policy, it’s important to know what it’s going to do for you as far as offering protection for your home and belongings. Since a home is made up of much more than just four walls and a roof, homeowners insurance includes coverage for all related aspects — not just the building itself. Coverage also aims to protect a home’s contents, including the family and their guests, against potential disasters within or surrounding the house.
Standard homeowners insurance policies have four main coverage categories:
Damage to the home’s structure: The first category of property damage concerns the actual dwelling or the structure of the house itself. Your homeowners policy protects the home’s structure from damage or destruction due to covered perils, which we’ll explore further in the next section. Detached structures, such as sheds, are often covered as well.
Damage to your personal property: This second aspect of property damage covers your personal belongings (e.g., furniture, electronics, clothing, artwork, decorations, etc.) stored within the home or in places such as storage units, to an extent. Damage, destruction, or loss of your personal property due to a covered peril is all protected under your insurance policy.
Liability: Homeowners policies include liability coverage for both bodily injury and property damage to a third party. Coverage extends to all members of your family living in the home, including pets. Liability coverage protects you against legal claims by reimbursing you for attorney and court fees, including any settlements you’re ordered to pay if the case rules against you. Your homeowners policy even protects against incidents in which you are sued away from home.
Additional living expenses: If your home gets badly damaged or destroyed and you’re forced to live elsewhere while repairs are done, your insurance will reimburse you for the additional expenses such as hotel rooms, eating out, extra gas mileage, etc., within reason.
From structural damage to the accidental injury of a guest, you’re likely to be covered by a homeowners insurance policy. For a claim to be successful, the cause of the issue needs to be due to a covered peril.
Covered Perils Under Homeowners Insurance
While it would be nice if homeowners insurance covered your home and belongings from absolutely all potential hazards, in reality, there isn’t any insurance policy that comes without a set of defined covered perils and a list of specific exclusions. First, we’ll start with the positives.
Commonly covered perils under standard homeowners policies include the following:
Theft
Vandalism
Explosion
Fire and smoke
Water damage
Aircraft or vehicle damage
Riots
Falling objects (and trees)
Roof collapse (due to weight of ice/snow)
Certain natural disasters (i.e., windstorms, hail, lightning, and blizzards)
Notice that only some, not all, natural disasters are covered by homeowners insurance. That being said, it’s time for the flipside of the coin.
What Homeowners Insurance Doesn’t Cover
Perhaps even more important than knowing what your homeowners policy covers is understanding what it doesn’t. This can save you the hassle of filing a claim that’s bound to get denied or counting on a reimbursement that’s not going to happen.
Standard homeowners policies typically do NOT cover the following perils:
Certain natural disasters (i.e., floods, earthquakes, and mudslides) Maintenance-related losses
Wear and tear damage (i.e., failure of the homeowner to maintain upkeep of the home) Insect damage or infestations
Damage from war or nuclear fallout
Business-related liability
If you run a business out of your home, homeowners insurance typically won’t cover liability for related mishaps. Homeowners policies also tend to limit liability coverage for certain types of vehicles, including aircraft, ATVs and boats and have very specific exceptions for certain powered vehicles, such as ride-on lawnmowers. You’ll need to check the policy to be sure of coverage for special vehicles.
Knowing How Much Coverage You Need to Purchase for Your Home
Once you understand what homeowners insurance does and doesn’t cover, you’ll need to figure out how much coverage you need. When insuring the home itself, consider how much it would cost to rebuild if a disaster caused destruction. Several things influence rebuilding costs for a home, including location, the type and age of construction, surface area, amenities, built-in plumbing and heating systems, and various features. Additionally, any measures taken to make a home nicer may increase its value and make it more expensive to rebuild.
Depending on the specific home’s value, rebuilding costs may run somewhere between $80-$150 per square foot. Plenty of online tools are available to help calculate the estimated cost to rebuild your home. Insurance agents are also equipped with professional tools for accurate estimates to help get you set up with the right amount of coverage for your home. It’s better to err on the side of purchasing too much coverage for your home’s structure, should you ever need to rebuild following a disaster.
Knowing How Much Coverage You Need to Purchase for Your Belongings
When it comes to insuring your personal belongings, homeowners policies typically limit replacement coverage for your personal property to 60% of your home’s total insured value. For example, if you purchase $200,000 worth of insurance on your home, $120,000 of coverage would apply to your belongings. Of course, you can always add more coverage. Should disaster strike, it’s a good idea to have a record of your belongings in photo or video format to help receive the reimbursement you’re entitled to.
If you have expensive or valuable items like furnishings, artwork, jewelry, or electronics, you might want to purchase extra coverage for your property. Special endorsements or riders are available for specific types of property that may be on the pricier side, such as jewelry and electronics. Purchasing endorsements or riders can help ensure your items are covered for their replacement costs and won’t exceed your policy’s coverage limit if they are lost, damaged, or destroyed.
Now that you have a deeper understanding of homeowners insurance coverage and how much is needed, you can begin your hunt for the right policy with a sense of empowerment and confidence. Don’t hesitate to ask your independent insurance agent for further clarification on any gray areas. Good luck.
